Proud to be yours
by Eriko
Summary: Err.. I'm not sure about the rating ^^;;. But anyway, the fic is also about Laguna and .... a family. Yeah, there's a family. It's like .. uh, the game never happened, and in the next chapters (if) there's going to be "like" my own version of the game (I


Disclaimer: The characters and "almost" everything else do not belong to me, they belong to Square soft [http://www.squaresoft.com]. Uh-huh. But "some" additional characters are out of my own mind. ;D  
  
Note: Yeah, semi-spoilers and some of my own theories. Gosh, it got sad enough for me to make up my own theories about the game. I need to get a life. O_o  
  
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[ Proud to be yours ]  
  
Chapter I: Get off my case  
  
He sat on a chair near the window. Looking out, he admired the way the sun reflected its rays against the tall buildings of Esthar. He put his elbow on his desk and his hand under his chin. His eyes flirted with the orangish pink sky, and eyed the colors as they switched to purple, then blue. He yawned. He didn't get much sleep the night before. The sunset only reminded him of how much he needed rest. The Silent Country of Esthar may call him their "sun light", but even the sun needs to rest.  
  
Laguna felt two hands on his shoulders, massaging them. He put his hand on the warm hand that massaged his left shoulder and looked up at the person who stood behind him. It was Raine, she smiled at him cheerfully.  
  
"Are you tired?" She asked him. He shook his head 'no'.  
  
"Liar," she said winking, "when will you come home tonight?" Laguna sighed.  
  
"I'm not sure," he answered getting up; giving his back to the window, "early, I hope," Raine put her delicate arms around him, to comfort. He held her close, playing with the tips of her long brown hair, which she kept down her back. Raine knew her husband did his best to be there for his family, yet she also understood his duties towards the country more than anyone else. She knew alot of people admired his dedication and sacrifices, but she admired him more than anyone else.  
  
There was sudden noise in the room, it interrupted the happy couple. Laguna went to answer the phone. After saying a few words into the receiver, he looked up at his wife, his eyes told her that he had to get back to work, on the other side of The Presidential Palace.  
  
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The Presidential Palace was quite big. The President's family lives at the master wing on one side of the building. And they were not allowed to roam around the building freely, there were only a few places that they could stay at. The building was filled with offices. Raine and her children never liked staying at the palace for too long. Each usually went for a walk around the city, or to visit friends and relatives.  
  
Raine and Laguna Loire had two children. One was Squall, he was seventeen, and the other, Julia; who was fifteen. The two of them were pretty rebellious. They never united unless it was something that would go against their parents. And neither liked to stay at home. There was a third that the Loires took care of, she was Ellone. She was Raine's adopted daughter, she lives in an apartment across the city. She works in a clinic as a nurse. She chose to move out of the Presidential Palace about a month ago because she wanted to be closer to her work, and because she was growing independent. Yet, she had no idea how her move had affected her adopted brother and sister. The grew more distant from their parents, she was the only link between them.  
  
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Julia lay on her back on the couch in the living room. She was listening to loud music, her arms were underneath her head and her eyes were closed. She hummed along with the songs that she listened to. She was annoyed that night. Her mother announced that everyone was going to have dinner at home that night. She had to cancel her plans with her friends because of the sudden family dinner that seemed to have come out of nowhere.  
  
Her brother came from the hall and walked towards the bedroom area, which was behind the living room. Julia made no notice of him until she saw him going back to the hall after getting his clothes changed.  
  
"Squall! Where are you going?" Julia squealed.  
  
"Out," he answered her coolly.  
  
"Mum said we're staying in tonight," she said to him. Squall rolled his eyes.  
  
"Who cares!" He exclaimed, "we won't be getting any family time until he actually gets time off work. That'll never happen," then he went out. Julia sat up with her arms crossed over her chest. She frowned. If Squall went out, why couldn't she try to catch up with her friends, too?  
  
Giving her friends a call, she went to her room to get changed and fix her hair. Following the footsteps of her big brother, she was going to break the rules. He was right anyway. It wasn't the first time that their mother had arranged a fancy family time dinner scheme that was always ruined by the fact that their father couldn't get home in time. It was useless to even try. Julia knew her mother got hurt. She usually said, "if it were me, I'd just leave him,". She was talking about her mother leaving her father. Little did Julia knew that it was far from happening.  
  
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Squall tossed the cup of beer across the table towards the bartender. He grabbed the girl who sat next to him and headed to the dance floor. She looked like she didn't really want to dance.  
  
"Squall, it's getting late," she whined. He held her close, put a hand on her cheek and let his forehead touch hers.  
  
"But it's only fifteen minutes to eleven," he whined.  
  
"But I promised my room-mate that I'd get home before eleven," she told him, pulling herself away, "or she'd tell the dean that I've been sneaking out on school nights,"  
  
"Come on, Nerle," he whispered, knowing she'd give in, "just tonight... for me," Nerle giggled.  
  
"Ok, just tonight," she whispered back, licking his lips and slipping her tongue into his mouth. The two kissed as they started to move to the music playing at the club.  
  
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It was slightly windy that night. The curtains in the bedroom were flying, as the window was left open. The cold wind blew into the dark, hollow room. There was a desk on one side of it and a small bed on the other; and the rest of the room lay bare. The door that lead to the tiny living room was closed, but the bathroom door was half open. It appeared that the bathroom window was also left open, because it one blow the door closed with a bang. The noise made the tiny figure asleep on the bed suddenly sit up with a gasp.  
  
Ellone put one hand on her mouth and the other on her chest. She took a couple of seconds to realize what had just happened, then she began to calm down. Even while being calm, she couldn't stop the hot tears from running down her cheeks. She was lonely and scared. She was never used to this silence at night. She had always had someone in the next room, someone who would hug her, listen to her rant about her nightmares and be there for her whenever she needed them. She suddenly felt as if she had never had a family.  
  
Looking at the clock on the wall, she shook her head as it was still a couple of minutes past eleven o'clock. Why wasn't it morning yet? She hated the lonely nights in her new apartment. Sometimes she wished she had never moved out. She wished she still lived with Raine and Laguna. She missed having Squall and Julia around, as well. She missed their arguments, she missed their cheerful laughter. She lived in heaven and she threw it all away to drown in the sorrows of early independence.  
  
'Snap out of,' she silently scolded herself, 'stop being weak!'. She sighed and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep. She kept having nightmares that week, and the week before now that she thinks of it. Whenever she'd close her eyes, she'd see people from the distant west coming to Esthar to take Squall away and get him involved in cases that would make his life a living nightmare. She worried for him. But she thought the worrying should end, it was just a nightmare. Ellone told herself that she'd have a talk with him the following day. She stared back at the ceiling, she had always forgot to get a mop to clean it with. It looked disgusting, if anything caused her nightmares it was the ceiling.  
  
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"Julia, where to next?" Lein asked as they got into an air taxi.  
  
"I don't know, I thought we should test out our new fake IDs, how about we go to that club on the thirteenth street?" Julia said. Her friends, Lein and Melly giggled.  
  
"Oh, you are so bad, Julia," Lein said, "Club 13th night has, like, the worst reputation,"  
  
So the destination was selected. The air taxi headed towards thirteenth street. Lein was right. But the real story was that it was only the Club that had the bad reputation, the whole street was known for the frequent visits of gangsters and such. It was like the slums of Esthar, yet, nosy teenagers found it fun to explore that area.  
  
The air taxi crossed a couple of streets, the wind blew into the girls' hair. They gossiped excitedly as the taxi stopped at the depart point in the middle of the street. Melly was the first to jump off and walk towards the club, Lein and Julia followed her. One of the girls started to chicken out.  
  
"Well... we're here," said Melly, "don't you think it's a little too noisy?"  
  
"Noisy? My arse," exclaimed Julia, grabbing her friends' arms and leading them towards the club entrance. Each put her fake ID at the ID-scanner. You'd usually hear sirens if an under-aged person tries to enter. But alot of under-aged teens enter with fake IDs, so will Julia and her friends.  
  
The door opened, three little figures nervously made their way inside. The club was crowded. It was bigger than any club the three girls ever been to. Each scanned around the area, exploring everything with their eyes. The atmosphere was peculiar. It was dark, just as big as it was. There were a few disco balls hung around in different areas, some on the first floor and some on the higher "balcony-like" thing that made the second floor. The disco balls reflected the colored rays of light around the area, the only lights left on. There were clouds of smoke in almost every corner. Couples making out in booths, ignoring everything around them. Drunk people picking fights with everyone. And there was a band, they played nothing Julia, Lein or Melly recognized. Melly didn't like the place one bit, she didn't feel comfortable at all.  
  
As Julia's deep brown eyes explored the new place like a child who had just seen light, she saw something that frightened her. Something that made her heart jump up in her throat. She put her hands on her cheeks and let out a blood-chilling scream.  
  
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Laguna sauntered his way back to the family's apartment, tiredly. As he got up in the elevator, a queer feeling told him that something wasn't right. Maybe it was unusually quiet, Then again, at almost 1 AM, it would be quiet. He walked in the empty hallway, followed by the empty living room. That's what his life felt like lately; empty. His family was always there for him, but he could never do the same. The only time when he could do the same is when they didn't need him. He thought he heard gasping... or was it sobbing, as he got closer to his bedroom. His bedroom and Raine's.  
  
There she was, sitting on her bed, wearing a white night gown, her long hair down on her face. She looked like she had jumped out of a happy fairy tale, minus the tears. He slowly approached the woman, putting a hand on her heaving shoulder.  
  
"Why are you crying?" He asked her, starting to feel scared, "Raine, what's wrong?" She shook her head, trying to say 'nothing' but there were too many lumps in her throat she couldn't speak.  
  
Sitting next to her on the bed, Laguna took Raine in his arms and let her cry on his shoulder. Her eyes were red, she must have been crying for a long time. And her skin felt warm, she must have been angry, or upset at least. Laguna prayed with all the strength he had that it wasn't because of his late arrival. It hurt him to see her like this.  
  
"Hey.." started Laguna, as Raine was calming down. He wiped her tears with his fingers and looked into her sad eyes. He notice she was avoiding his eyes, and then he knew that whatever made his wife cry, he definitely had something to do with it. That made him feel like a jerk. He knew alot of the things he does upset her, yet she never admits the pain.  
  
"Tears don't look good on you," he told her, "tell me what wiped away your smile," that seemed to upset her, because she started sobbing again.  
  
"I... I don't know where Squall and Julia are," Raine managed to say.  
  
That wasn't just it. It wasn't unusual for Squall and Julia to stay out late, later than this, even. It bothered Raine that she had planned the family dinner so perfectly, yet no one wanted to show up. It was normal for Laguna to get tied down with his work, but her children never snuck out on her like that before. It made her feel worthless to this family.  
  
"Did you call security?" Laguna asked. She shook her head in denial.  
  
"They'd call us if something happened," Raine answered softly, looking slightly annoyed. Her husband was taking by surprise, he raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Then, you're not really worried about them, are you?"  
  
Now Raine really was annoyed. She stood up and walked a few feet away from the bed, crossing her arms over her chest, she thought of what must be said. She didn't know how to explain her feelings to Laguna. She stayed silent, she was afraid of she started talking, she might say things she would regret. She bit her lip.  
  
It was quiet. Raine heard her husband slowly get up the bed and stand behind her. He didn't say anything, how could he? He seemed to have upset her in a way he couldn't understand yet. Whatever it was that he did, he was guilty about it.  
  
Sudden movements were heard in the living room. The two figures standing in the darkness of the bedroom quickly made their way out. There it was, what Raine had expected, she shook her head and sighed. A security guard stood grabbing a worried looking Julia by one arm and a drunk Squall by the other. Laguna's jaw dropped open.  
  
"What happened?" He cried.  
  
"The usual getting-drunk-and-getting-into-a-fight-in-a-club scenario, Sir," answered the security guard.  
  
"The usual?" The father exclaimed, he looked over at Raine who's hand was over her mouth as if to say, 'I'm sick of this,".  
  
"I'll leave you to settle, this," said the guard, "good night, sir,"  
  
The man walked out of the President's apartment, leaving the family in the cruel silence of the night. No one dared say a word. Each looked at the other, as if looking for a reaction… a sign.. is it ok to talk? Is it alright to start firing out excuses?  
  
"Talk about stupid," Julia half mumbled as she rolled her eyes at her brother. He didn't seem aware she was trying to annoy him. He went and sat on the nearest chair and put his hand on his forehead, it looked like he had a headache. Julia kept her arms crossed at her chest and watched her parents exchange glances. The trouble father started to pace around the room mumbling words under his breath. The words that the rest of the family could hear were, "drunk" "late", and "clubs".  
  
Five minutes pass, nobody talks. Ten minutes pass, Laguna stops mumbling and pacing around – making everyone more nervous than they ever were in their life. He stopped next to Raine and gave her a look. At that moment, Raine felt guilt. Laguna might've been away from the family for too long, but Julia and Squall were her responsibility. She failed him.  
  
Laguna walked back to the bedroom without saying anything, without even looking at anyone. Raine let out a tiny gasp that she hoped her children wouldn't hear. She looked at the two surprised expressions on their faces then followed Laguna to the bedroom.  
  
The two confused teenagers exchanged glances. If their father had yelled or grounded them, it might've felt better than this. Nothing hurts more than the silence. When you know someone's thinking something about you, something you won't like; but they won't say it. Nobody slept that night.  
  
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Note: What do you think of it? Should I continue? Sorry about the last couple of paragraphs being crap.. something's making my cherries taste weird, that's probably why. =P 


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